Amanda Keller fights back tears on air as she reveals her husband is 'not well enough' to go out for their wedding anniversary following his heartbreaking diagnosis
An emotional Amanda Keller struggled to hold back tears this week while reflecting on her 35-year marriage to husband Harley Oliver.
Back in 2023, Amanda revealed on her Double A Chattery podcast that Harley had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for years.
A tearful Amanda, 63, opened up about the deeply personal highs and lows of the couple's three decades together, on her Jonesy and Amanda show on Monday.
'I don't want to get emotional,' she said. 'It's my wedding anniversary today.'
'In the old days, Harley and I would have been going out to dinner tonight. But he's not well enough to do that. But I've been thinking about this.
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'How long have you been married, Brendan?' she asked co-host Brendan Jones, who replied, '30 years.'
Amanda, who was in her late 20s when she walked down the aisle, added that the gravitas of the vows is often lost on young people at the start of their journey together.
'When you stand there on your wedding day and you say forever, what does that even mean? You don't even know,' she said candidly.
'I think all you can say is, I kind of feel the weight of potential that we can go somewhere here. And when you say the words, for better or worse, you know, what do they mean when you're in your 20s?'
When Brendan brought up the concept of 'in sickness or in health' Amanda said it was a concept hard to grasp 'until you're living it.'
'I kind of fluctuate between taking great pride in the fight that we are alongside each other, and the strength that it takes to get up every day and still fight it and still live it,' she said.
'But I don't think you can get to 35 years without the sands shifting between you beneath your feet.'
She added that life had been 'hard' since Harley's diagnosis and that making peace with the diagnosis can, at times, be difficult.
'Harley's very stoic, but it's hard. And, you know, I'm grateful today that here we are, 35 years and we're still in it together. But it's hard,' she said.
'You do fluctuate between dealing with what's in front of you and having the absolute s***s that you're dealing with what's in front of you.'
While the couple's life has changed invariably since Harley's diagnosis, Amanda added that she was grateful.
'We've lived a rich and wonderful life together, and we still do,' she said.
'But it's not the same as the old days where we'd be going out to dinner tonight. But the boys are coming over for dinner. And I'm grateful that we still have each other.
'I wasn't going to get emotional. Anyway, happy anniversary, Harley.'
Speaking to Stellar in 2024, Amanda admitted that it took her a long time to accept Harley's diagnosis.
'I've gone through a phase of being angry because I'd say things to him like, "Oh, come on, stand upright", or "Your voice…", I knew what it was, he'd been diagnosed,' she said.
'We've lived a rich and wonderful life together, and we still do,' she continued.
'But it's not the same as the old days where we'd be going out to dinner tonight. But the boys are coming over for dinner. And I'm grateful that we still have each other.
'I knew what was going on but I found it hard to accept. And I feel now I'm very much on the path of acceptance – or that radical acceptance, as we speak about.'
She continued: 'Some days that's a phrase that I'm trying to live and other days I do feel it. But we're both on the same page now. For a while I was kind of fighting it.'
Amanda revealed in October 2023 that Harley had been suffering from Parkinson's disease for years.
The breakfast radio host, who has been married to Oliver since 1989, explained her husband received the diagnosis about six years ago, but the couple had only now decided to discuss the disease publicly.
Parkinson's is an incurable brain disorder characterised by uncontrollable movements, including shaking, stiffness, and challenges with balance and coordination.
Unfortunately, the symptoms of Parkinson's tend to worsen over time.
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